What exactly is the "Most Decorated Battleship" in the United States?

Factual Questions
1

I’ve noticed the official websites for the USS North Carolina, USS South Dakota, and USS New Jersey all claim they’re the “Most Decorated Battleship in the History of the US Navy”. The USS South Dakota Museum website claims “Battleship X USS South Dakota (BB 57), with its combination of Navy Unit Citation and 13 battle stars, was the most decorated battleship of World War II. " The USS North Carolina website says “During World War II, NORTH CAROLINA participated in every major naval offensive in the Pacific area of operations and earned 15 battle stars”. And the Battleship New Jersey website straight up claims " America’s Most Decorated Battleship”.

Now, by sheer battle stars North Carolina would win most decorated ship, but since her and South Dakota both were mothballed after World War 2, this allows New Jersey to gain more combat experience though battle stars from what I read weren’t counted after WW2, but if each engagement was counted as a “Battle Star” I can’t really see New Jersey catching up to North Carolina. And that also brings up the fact, what makes USS New Jersey more decorated than either the USS Iowa, USS Missouri, and USS Wisconsin which all also fought in wars after WW2 alongside her?

2

In addition to battle stars, there are campaign stars (New Jersey has a combo of 19) as well as citations from foreign powers (the British admiralty and the President of the Philippines were fond of awarding these to American ships). It all depends on what decorations you decide to count.

3

Indeed.
If you take the dictionary definition of “decorate” at face value, then this one has to be up there.

DECORATE

to add something to an object or place, especially in order to make it more attractive:

4

And then you have to decide whether it’s just the number of decorations, or if some decorations are worth more than others. I know that, among human servicemembers, one Medal of Honor is regarded as “more decoration” than any amount of lesser fruit salad. Though I don’t know enough about ship decorations to judge, there.

5

I suppose the equivalent to the tiered awards system for ships would be the various unit citations. How many Navy Unit Commendations does it take to equal one Presidential Unit Citation?

The answer of course is no one thinks in such terms.

6

How do all the Iowas compare to each other then?

7

I think it’s this one.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CH39_8yB4Fh/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=6ceefc88-693f-4a43-bc8b-499d8d850344&ig_mid=2B570E61-2962-4C5A-AF0A-56838818D984